Review

Review Summary: Despite some unconventional and excessively long names Success Will Write Apocalypse across the Sky release an album that is solid but will occasionally lose the attention of the listener.

American death metal has seen wave after wave of solid yet unmemorable acts, and if it wasn’t for the awkwardly long band name, Success Will Write Apocalypse across the Sky may have been completely over-looked. Along comes 2009 and this rather unspectacular death metal act release their debut and unfortunately the album title is easier to forget than the band name. As for the music itself, there are all your typical traits of the genre; growls, blast beats, triggered pedal work and low end chug riffing. The bass guitar is absent from the mix but does make the odd appearance that only benefits the entire record. The Grand Partition & The Abrogation Of Idolatry starts off with a bang and a slam, highlighting the pace the album has roughly from start to finish. This track has everything listeners can expect from a modern American death metal band.

A positive of the record is that most track lengths do not exceed four minutes. This brevity allows tracks to come and go without losing a lot of the interest that is created. Helping maintain this interest is a number of audio clippings; child’s voices, chanting’s and even words against religious groups. When you put all of this together you have a debut that may not be ground-breaking and definitely does not top the genre in terms of quality but is solid enough to maintain a devoted fan base.

Where The Grand Partition & The Abrogation Of Idolatry stands out is merely with technical prowess. The rhythm section especially stands out; between the vocal phrasing and blast beats is a cohesive and consistent approach to death metal. Yes, it’s all text book but it’s done well and in a positive manner. For the listener it all comes down to how much they’re into the ‘generic’ or ‘unspectacular’. Keeping in mind that Success Will Write Apocalypse across the Sky does not write ‘boring’ songs, in fact it’s quite the opposite. There are some quality tracks but unfortunately these are overshadowed by most of the material that has already been produced by the genre’s heavyweights; acts such as early Deicide or even more modern acts such as Decapitation.

Overall The Grand Partition & The Abrogation Of Idolatry marks a debut that doesn’t fully launch Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky onto the worlds stage but will at least allow some attention to be created for a band that shows promise and potential, with an opportunity to develop further than what they have. Maybe with another release they can create a bigger impact onto an already crowded scene.